Call whole thing off. Pull down the posters. Cancel the photo shoots. Forget about what the plans were, have been or will be.

Get someone to hack www.GoSenecaGo.com.

The annual curse handed down to a college football player every December at the Downtown Athletic Club is something we should all want our beloved Seneca to avoid.

It’s meant to be an honor, but history shows it can be like seeing a black cat, breaking a mirror, walking under a ladder or all three put together.

The Heisman Curse is alive and well.

The man that was proclaimed the best college football player in all the land just nine months ago – former Nebraska quarterback Eric Crouch – is the latest in a long list of Heisman Heroes that have gone on to become Football Flops.

I thought it may have just been bad luck with Andre Ware, Gino Torretta and Rashaan Salaam (Heisman winners in 1989, 1992 and 1994 respectively). For all I know, any of them could be at my neighborhood Wal-Mart – the guy asking me if I need a yellow smiley face sticker for my return – and I wouldn’t know it.

Crouch’s “retirement” gives the theory more support, but it’s not like there aren’t other examples.

Charlie Ward: This guy won the award with more than three times the votes than the second-place finisher.

Then he promptly accepted a contract with the New York Knickerbockers.

Last I checked, they aren’t in the NFL.

Doug Flutie: He was known for his `Hail Mary’ to beat Miami in 1984, but not for a storied NFL career.

Before 1998 you had to go north to find him, where he played in the Canadian Football League.

Bo Jackson: Bo didn’t know. He had an incredible professional football and baseball career cut short by a hip condition.

Sure, I admit that not everyone who wins the trophy is going to make it big in the pro ranks.

Then there’s Barry Sanders and Marcus Allen who both took home the prize.

But that’s just it, scan the list of winners hard, and in the last 20 years or so, Sanders and Allen are the only two that stand out in my mind.

Eddie George won it too, and he might turn out to be on the same level, but the jury is still out.

This isn’t the first Iowa Stater to be under consideration.

In 1995 Troy Davis ran for 2,010 yards on a losing team and finished fifth in the Heisman voting. He scooted for 2,185 yards the next year, but still didn’t win the trophy.

Davis is proof that not winning the award doesn’t exactly guarantee any amount of success.

He’s currently with the Hamilton Tiger Cats of the Canadian Football League.

One thing Davis did do, though, was help put the Cyclones in the spotlight to some extent. By just being there, he helped people realize that Iowa State’s mascot isn’t Herky the Hawkeye.

So, push Wallace for the top five instead of top dog.

Let him put on a show this season, just like he did against Iowa, and get him to New York City so all the world can see a real Cyclone.

Iowa State football needs all the exposure it can get, and Wallace will undoubtedly help put the Cyclones on the map, but let’s hope he’s applauding instead of walking up to the podium after the announcement.

After all, O.J. Simpson won the Heisman Trophy in 1968, and everyone knows what happened to him. Or maybe that was luck?

Jeff

Raasch

is a junior in journalism and mass communication from Odebolt. He is the

assignment sports editor

of the Daily.